Sin categoría
Hurricane Beryl leaves at least 6 dead, destruction and “alarming precedent” in the Caribbean
Beryl’s passage through the Caribbean has already left at least six dead, generating concern about the speed in its formation and for reaching the greatest power that a cyclone (category 5) can have at such an early stage in the Atlantic hurricane season, something that is seen as an “alarming precedent.”
On Monday night, Beryl reached category 5 (the maximum on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which measures cyclones by its winds), and dropped to 4 on Tuesday afternoon, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), based in Miami.
At least three people died on Tuesday in Granada, in addition to a death recorded on Monday in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, islands of the Eastern Caribbean.
The Prime Minister of Granada, Dickon Mitchell, said that “possibly more” people have lost their lives on this island and neighboring Carriacou.
Mitchell said that efforts are being made to get a helicopter to visit Carriacou since the sea is still very rough and the Coast Guard ships probably won’t be able to arrive.
The cyclone, the first of the Atlantic hurricane season, has left significant destruction of buildings, roads and boats in several countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which suspended its annual meeting and convened a virtual meeting to evaluate the damage and design a collective response.
On the other hand, the Venezuelan authorities reported on Tuesday two deaths, five missing and more than 600 homes affected in the state of Sucre (northeast), due to the overflow of the Manzanares River after the passage of Beryl.
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Remigio Ceballos, reported that medical care was provided to the population and that “reinforcements” were deployed with firefighters and other rescue organizations “for analysis, damage assessment and mitigation work.”
In Puerto Rico, the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA) reported the closure of several spas in the north and southwest of the island due to the dangerous maritime conditions caused by the hurricane.
“The conditions are not suitable for bathers,” the DRNA urged in its message, while the National Meteorological Service (SNM) issued warnings of coastal flooding and marine currents, as well as for small boats.
On the other hand, the Dominican Republic began to feel the indirect effects of the hurricane on Tuesday, which remains a dangerous system with maximum sustained winds of 260 kilometers per hour (160 miles per hour).
Faced with this panorama, the Emergency Operations Center (COE) of the Dominican Republic put on alert 24 of the country’s 32 provinces, two of them, Barahona and Pedernales (southwest) in red (maximum), and where the indirect effects of the hurricane are already felt, which led to the start of preventive evacuations and the suspension of classes.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador criticized on Tuesday the “sensationalism” around Hurricane Beryl, which at the end of this week may make landfall in southeastern Mexico.
“They will never be helpless, but also do not get upset, because there will also be a lot of sensationalism, too much information about the hurricane, exaggerated,” the president said.
The National Meteorological Service (SMN) warned on Monday of a double impact in Mexico, where between Thursday and Friday it would land in Quintana Roo, the largest tourist state in the country, and between Sunday and Monday in Veracruz, in the Gulf of Mexico.
On the other hand, cruise companies such as Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival diverted or canceled their itineraries before Beryl’s advance through the Caribbean, justifying the priority of the safety of their guests and crew.
Beryl will be heading to Jamaica – it is expected to pass near this island on Wednesday – and the next day it will affect the Cayman Islands. In addition, it can pass through the coasts of Haiti from the borders with the Dominican Republic to the town of Anse d’Hainault, according to the NHC.
Precisely, the Government of Jamaica announced on Tuesday the closure of the international airport and the non-essential government offices, as part of the preparations for the arrival of the cyclone.
Beryl surprised the small archipelagos of the Eastern Caribbean with its rapid formation and ability to gain power, which according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is an “alarming precedent.”
The UN meteorological agency stressed that since it was registered, a hurricane of maximum intensity had never been formed in the Atlantic at this point of the year.
In the current Atlantic season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, three tropical storms have already formed with name: Alberto, Beryl and Chris, the latter that also had a rapid development and wreaked havoc in Mexico.
For the WMO, the arrival of Beryl with this force two weeks earlier than usual could be the anticipation of “a very active season with risks for the entire Atlantic basin.”
Meteorologist José Manuel Galvez told EFE that in recent years there has been a process known as “rapid intensification” of these tropical systems, which “tends to prevail.”
According to the NHC, it is expected that by midweek Beryl will gradually lose intensity, although he will still maintain hurricane winds.
International
Musk joins the fight between Trump and Trudeau and insults the Canadian prime minister
Businessman Elon Musk described Justin Trudeau as “stupid unbearable” on Wednesday after the Canadian prime minister delivered a speech in which he linked Donald Trump to the decline in women’s rights.
In the same message on his social network X, Musk also anticipated that Trudeau “will not be in power for a long time.”
Musk posted his message in response to another publication by a Canadian conservative academic who described Trudeau as “grotesque” as a comment on a video of the speech delivered this Wednesday by the Canadian leader.
The fight between Trudeau and Trump
On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau linked Donald Trump’s electoral victory to the decline of women’s rights, after the Republican mocked the Canadian leader by calling him “governor” of a state of the United States.
It all started when Trudeau traveled to Florida at the end of October to meet with the president-elect where he tried to convince him not to punish Canada with tariffs of 25%, he said today at an event in Ottawa that there are politicians and “reactionary forces” who want to reverse women’s rights.
“We were supposed to be in a constant, albeit difficult, march towards progress. And even so, a few weeks ago, the United States voted for the second time not to elect its first female president,” the prime minister continued.
“In all ways, women’s rights and women’s progress are under attack, openly or subtly. I want you to know that I am and will always be a proud feminist. They will always have an ally in me and in my Government,” he added before a mostly feminist audience.
Plans on Trudeau’s agenda: border security and tariffs
In addition, Trudeau plans to meet this Wednesday with the heads of government of the country’s 11 provinces to inform them of the plan to invest 1 billion Canadian dollars (710 million US dollars or 670 million euros) to strengthen border security.
Trump has stated that he will apply tariffs of 25% to Canada and Mexico until the flow of drugs and undocumented immigrants from those two countries stops.
After the threat, Trudeau had dinner with the president-elect at his residence in Mar-a-Lago. During that dinner, Trump joked that the solution to the large tariffs he wants to impose is for Canada to integrate into the United States as one more state.
This week, in a continuation of his joke, Trump called Trudeau the “governor” of the “great state of Canada.”
The Canadian prime minister also faces negative opinion polls in Canada that place the opposition Conservative Party (PC) 20 points ahead in voting intention.
The conservatives have tabled three motions of censure in recent weeks to try to bring forward the general elections scheduled for October 20, 2025, but they have not managed to overthrow the Liberal Party government.
Trudeau’s confrontation with Trump and the possibility of Canadian conservatives winning the elections with a political agenda similar to that of the Republican on issues of women’s rights and other minorities could improve the prime minister’s political prospects.
International
The Vice President of Ecuador seeks to reverse the suspension imposed by the Government in Justice
The suspended vice president of Ecuador and ambassador to Israel, Verónica Abad, asked the Justice to annul the sanction imposed by the Government that prevents her from exercising office for five months and, therefore, assuming presidential functions when President Daniel Noboa must request leave for the electoral campaign of the 2025 elections, where he seeks his re-election.
The suspension was issued by the Ministry of Labor for not having traveled from Tel Aviv to Ankara within the deadline set by the Government, which considered it as a temporary abandonment of her position as vice president, within the heated confrontation between Noboa and Abad, who has denounced the president for alleged political gender violence and has accused him of leading harassment with the intention of forcing his resignation.
Distancing between the president and the vice president of Ecuador
The distance between Noboa and Abad began in the electoral campaign of the 2023 elections and was reflected when he assumed their positions, when the ruler sent her to Israel as ambassador for the country, with the aim of mediating the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.
Abad, who returned to Quito a few days ago, personally appeared at the hearing on the protection action against his suspension, where Judge Nubia Vera heard the parties and several lawyers, women’s movements and academics, who gave their views on the relevance and constitutionality of the sanction.
The vice president had already filed an appeal for amparo when the Ministry opened the administrative summary, but another judge denied the protection.
“A historic cause for the country”
“This is a historic cause for the country, over 194 years of constitutionalism in Ecuador it is the first time that an administrative authority imposes itself before an authority of popular choice, so it is necessary to establish in this case if this administrative act is above the Constitution and prevails over rights,” said Damián Armijos, from the Abad’s legal team, at the beginning of the hearing.
The lawyer asked the judge to declare that the administrative summary violated the political rights, legal certainty, due process and the presumption of innocence of the vice president, among others, and to order that the decision be reversed.
In addition, he demanded that the Minister of Labor, Ivonne Núñez, issue a public apology through a message to the nation, among other sanctions, as part of the comprehensive reparation.
However, the Ministry’s defense insisted that Abad is a public official, so that portfolio did have the power to open an administrative summary and sanction her, and emphasized that her political rights were not violated because she is not prevented from holding public office.
No legal basis for the sanction
One of the key moments of the hearing occurred when Judge Vera asked the Ministry’s lawyer to specify in which part of the Ecuadorian legislation it is determined that the sanction that the vice president received should be 150 days.
The defense took several minutes to look for normative support and in the end admitted that, in the face of a serious offense, the Public Service Law (Losep) does not determine a limit of days of temporary suspension, so the decision was made “based on the rules of sound criticism.”
“Considering the impossibility of dismissing the vice president, the least burdensome decision has been made,” the lawyer added.
At another time, the judge asked the lawyer if the Foreign Service Law had been taken into account, which states that ambassadors have 30 days to move to their new headquarters. The lawyer answered no, because they were only competent to know summaries based on the Losep.
To replace Abad, Noboa appointed the national secretary of Planning Sariha Moya as “vice president in charge”, in an unprecedented event in the country.
International
Trump will nominate Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, as Secretary of the Interior
The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, will officially announce on Friday the nomination of the governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, as the next Secretary of the Interior.
This was announced on Thursday night during the speech he offered at the gala dinner held at his private club in Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach (Florida), which from today until Saturday hosts a new edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
“We are going to reduce regulatory waste, fraud and inefficiency,” promised the Republican, winner of the electoral fair on November 5 and who will assume his second term on January 20.
Burgum: another one that Trump left in the race
Billionaire and former executive director of a technology company, Burgum ran in the primaries for the nomination of the Republican Party and even participated in the first two debates, finally abandoned the race to the White House last December.
Shortly after, Bergum, 68 years old and governor of North Dakota since 2016, gave his support to the former president (2017-2021) in the race for the Republican nomination and campaigned with him in several events.
His name was even on the final list of the Republican’s possible presidential running mates, who finally opted for Ohio Senator JD Vance.
The ‘gala’ of the CPAC
The president-elect has today been the leading figure of the gala dinner of the conservative America First Policy Institute that is held in his mansion and social club, and in which he has been presented by actor Sylvester Stallone, who referred to the Republican as “the second George Washington.”
JD Vance, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, and billionaire Elon Musk, who is having a prominent participation in the transition process of the future Trump Administration, have been part of the gala.
“He’s good. He has done a fantastic job. Really an incredible mind,” Trump said at dinner.
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, also participated in the event, who on the podium was “grateful” and “blessed” to be among “true giants.”
“You have done a fantastic job in a short time and it is an honor to have you here,” Trump said, who stressed that the libertarian “has made Argentina great again,” alluding to the slogan of his campaign since 2016.
The US president-elect announced today another outstanding nomination: that of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his conspiracy theories about vaccines, as the new Secretary of Health.
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